New York: Pakistan is asking the US to give
it a central role in resolving the Afghan war by offering to
mediate with Taliban factions, but wants to clip the growing
Indian presence in the war-torn country.
Pakistan is touting its influence over the Haqqani
network to aim at preserving its influence in an Afghanistan
endgame in talks with the US, New York Times reported today.
Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani made
clear his country's willingness to mediate at a meeting late
last month at NATO headquarters with top American military
officials, a senior American military official familiar with
the meeting said.
The paper said it is a departure from Pakistan's previous
reluctance to approach the Taliban. The meeting included the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm Mike Mullen, the
head of Central Command, Gen David H Petraeus, and the
commander of American and allied troops in Afghanistan Gen
Stanley A McChrystal, the official said.
"The Pakistanis want to be part of discussions that could
involve reconciliation," the official said.
Islamabad's desire to work with Washington in an
Afghanistan endgame is likely to be discussed when national
security adviser Gen James L Jones visits Pakistan this week.
So far, the US has been more eager to push Pakistan to fight
Taliban than to negotiate with them and has not endorsed
Pakistan's new approach.
The Pakistani offer makes clear that any stable solution
to the war will have to take into account Afghanistan's
neighbours, in a region where Pakistan, India, China, Iran and
others all jostle for power.
Pakistani officials familiar with Kayani's thinking said
that even as the US adds troops to Afghanistan, he has
determined that the Americans are looking for a fast exit. The
impression, they said, was reinforced by President Obama's
scant mention of the war in his State of the Union address.
What the Pakistanis can offer is their influence over the
Taliban network of Jalaluddin and Siraj Haqqani, whose forces
American commanders say are the most lethal battling American
and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.
From their stronghold in Pakistan's tribal area of North
Waziristan, the Haqqanis exert sway over large parts of
southern Afghanistan and have staged major terrorist attacks
in Kabul, American officials say.
They are close allies of al-Qaeda. But they also have
long ties to Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies
that have protected them inside Pakistani territory.
In return for trying to rein in the Haqqanis, Pakistan
will be looking for a friendly Afghanistan and for ways to
stem the growing Indian presence there, Pakistani and American
officials said.
In briefings last week with reporters at his army
headquarters, the usually reticent General Kayani repeated his
offer at NATO to play a constructive role, while making it
clear Pakistan was seeking broad influence in southern
Afghanistan. The Haqqani network would be one of Pakistan's
strongest levers to do that.
The US officials said Washington was still debating the
contours of any negotiated solution. But a baseline for
Pakistan, they said, would be for it to engineer a separation
between the Haqqani network and the Qaeda leadership.
For the moment, the US has been looking instead for
military help from Pakistan to tamp down Taliban and Qaeda
strength in southern Afghanistan, where the Haqqanis command
an estimated 4,000 fighters, the officials say.
The Americans have been pushing General Kayani to launch
an offensive against the Haqqanis' base in North Waziristan.
At the January 26 NATO meeting with General Kayani, US
military commanders reviewed the list of hardware – ‘MI-17
helicopters, ammunition for Cobra attack helicopters, body
armour, armored vehicles –‘ that has been put on a fast track
to the Pakistani military as an inducement to take on the
Haqqanis.
But General Kayani, who pleased the Americans with an
operation against the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan
last fall, was unmoved.
The message was that the Pakistani Army still regarded
India as its primary enemy and was stretched too thin to open
a new front.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 18:58